Sheet registering means for printing machines and the like



H. T. BACKHOUSE SHEET REGISTERING MEANS FOR PRINTING MACHINES AND THELIKE July 29, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 26, 1948 July 29, 1952 H. T. BACKHOUSE 2,605,103

SHEET REGISTERING MEANS FOR PRINTING MACHINES AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. 2a, 1948 s Sheets-Sheet 2 v I Z N VE/VTOR 744 TM @444.

July 29, 1952 H. 1'. BACK USE 2,605,103

- SHEET REGISTERING ME N F PRINTING MACHINES AND THE E Fild Nov. 26', 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet s M, 62% v Ln, 4 7

Patented July 29, 1952 2,605,103 SHEET REGISTERING MEANS FOR PRINT- ING MACHINES AND THE LIKE Headley Townsend Backhouse, Sunningdale,

' England Application November 26, 1948, Serial No. 62,249 In Great Britain December 3,1947 I The invention relates to printing machines of the kind operating on successive sheets ofpap'er,

vcard or the like and embodying a printing mechanism, a reed-board; means for feeding a'succes- I sion of partly overlapped sheets on to the feed- 1 Claim. (01.211 60) 7 l that the free end of the scraper arm scrapes the underside of the sheet being removed at the position occupied by the leading edge of the next sheet as the sheet approaches the registering board to a position whereregistration of the sheets is effected and means for transferring the sheets one at a time from the feed-board to the printing mechanism. I

' It is desirable, in machines of the above kind, and with a View to reducing the interval between the removal of successive sheets with, in the case of a rotary printing machine, a corresponding reduction, in the ineffective parts of the circum- 19111-31106 of the cylinder to which the sheets are transferredgto effect the registration of each sheet during the removal of the preceding sheet from the feed-board and it is known for this purpose to provide front and side registering devices operating beneath thesheet being removed, the sheets being supplied to the feed-board in partly overlapped relation. In order that devices operating inthis way may be effective it is necessary to ensure that the succeeding sheet doesnotadhere to the sheet being removed and is not carried into the printing machine with the latter sheet.

' It'is an object of the present invention to provide simple means for engaging the leading edge of sheet to engage the leading edge of a succeeding sheet as *it approaches the registering position, and .to separate that edge from the sheet being removed, which scraper device consists of a'memher having two arms at an angle and is plvotally supported about the free end of one of the arms, below the feed-board for oscillation about an vaxis parallel to the leading edge of the sheet to be engagedfrom a position in which the other arm (later referred to as the scraper arm) ex-' tends upwardly towards the underside of the sheet being removed to a position in which the scraper arm lies above and substantially parallel to the surface of the front edge portion of the succeeding sheet, the movement of the device as aforesaid being in a direction against the movement of the sheets and being followed by a return movement to the initial position, and means for oscillating the scraper device as aforesaid and in such timed relation with the feeding of the sheets position and the scraper arm reaches the limit of its movement just before the sheet reaches the registering position.

In the preferred form of the invention the scraper device also serves'as a front lay or stop to secure approximate or accurate registration of the front edge of the succeeding sheet. The scraper device may also act as a smoother for the 'front edge portion of the succeeding sheet. In this latter arrangement the front edge portion of the sheet lies underneath the scraper after the latter has completed the scraping operation and has reached a position in which it lies above the feed-board and is spaced therefrom by an amount slightly greater than the thickness of the material being fed.

Normally, in carrying out the invention there will be at least two scraper devices operating at or near the opposite sides of the sheet and there maybe more than two (e. g., four) such devices spaced apart across the width of the sheet. I

In a more specific form of the invention the scraper device or each device comprises an angular hook-like member pivotally supported at the end of'one of its arms below the feed-board for oscillation in timed relationship with the removal of the sheets from the board about an axis extending transversely of the board from a position in which the free end of the other arm (which gages the under-surface; of the sheet being reregistering position.

moved with a scraping action and tends to engage and separate from the sheet the leading edge of any. succeeding sheet which may be adhering thereto and might otherwise be carried past the In this form of the invention thescraper device returns to the initial position in time to release thesheet being registered for removal from the board. The shape of'the scraper arm is of considerable importance and should be such as to provide a sharp scraping edge which, engages the under-side of the sheet being removed over a substantial partof the arc face, may meet the inner face (i. e., the 1ay Or gauge face) of the other arm of the device at radial from the axis of rotation-or paralll "to such a plane and spaced therefrom .to asmall extent. The device may operate at the'front edge of the feed-board or through a notch orslot in the feed-board at or near the front edge.-

A specific embodiment of theinvention in-'a printing machine will now be described by way of example and with :reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective diagrammatic view of themachine; I

Figure 2-is aside viewshowing the'scraper devices and swinginggrippers to .an enlargedscale, and

Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating thetiming of --thescraper devices and the sheets.

The machine forming the subject of thisexample is a rotary offset printingpress, the sheets being carried by the lower roller Land printed by contact with the upper =ro1ler -2. The two 'rollers are supported in bearings-in a frame 3.

The lower roller carries :grippers 4 arranged in 'well known manner tosgrip thefront edge of-a' :sh'eet presented to the vroller and to carry the sheet arounditheroller for printing. The .ma-

chine embodies a feed-board 5 supported by brackets extending from the frame :3. This board is provided with conveyor-tapes I driven shaftZ lbeneath the feed-board, and between'the front of the bo'ard'and 'theiroller l'thereare a series of swinging grippers 23 arranged to .en- :gagethe frontedge of each :sheet after apre- .liminary re'gistration by the lays 20, to effect a more precise registration Jand 'thento .grip the front portion of the sheet'and to transfer it to 'the grippers'on the roller I. 'I'he'grippers23 are carried on arms '24 dependent from a rock-shaft "25 "which is driven through link '26 from atcam 21 on th'e'shaft 28 of the roller I. .Each swinging gripper embodies a plate 29 constituting a registering gauge or lay and all the lays are "to be aligned across the feed-board. The mechanism for opening'an'd closing the grippers is well known and is not shown.

The scraper-lays '20 are-each composed o'f'two arms at right angles'and each lay is'secured to the shaft 2| at the end of the arm a. The

'inner face of the'arm 20a is radial from the sha'ft 2| and constitutes the lay face. The free end of the arm 20?) is bevelled to form a scraper edge 20c with'the inner face of this arm which constitutes a smoother. -As may be seen from Fig. 3,

the effective length of scraper arm' 20b, measured from thelay face to' its free end, is about equal 1O right-angles, the gauge face being in aqalari'e' 4 to the effective length of the arm 20a, measure from the axis of rotation to the underside of arm 201). As shown in Fig. 2, the scraper lays move through an arc of about so that the scraper and smoother arm 2% moves first upwardly toward sheet la and then downwardlyover the edge nf succeeding sheet lb. The shaft 2-liis arranged for oscillation by a cam 30 on the shaft 28 to move the scraper-lays from the full line position through the chain-line positions in Figure 2 and back again and also forwardly and downwardly out of the way of the sheet being fed. The lay faces of :the several lays are aligned across the board, the lays being adjustable on the shaft 2| for that purpose and when in the most rearward chain line position of Fig. 3 the lay faces "are very "slightly in front of the rearward limit of the :movement of the plates 29. In this position the smoother faces of the scraper-lays lie .above the feed board andspaced from it by .only

a little more than the thickness of the sheets being fed.

'The timing of the oscillation of the scraperlays in relation to the arrival of the sheets at the front edge of the board is important and is illustrated in Figure 3. As can be seen from that figure the scraper edge 200 is timed to move backwardly (clockwise as viewed in Figure 3) under the sheet 1a which is beingv removed by the swing grippers, to engage the front edge of the next .sheet 1b just before (in this example 10 before) the edge reaches the registering position. "The scraper-edge then separates thesheet lbfrom the overlying sheet, la, and diverts the sheetdownwardly progressively until the sheet .lies onlthe feed board with its front edge .registered against the lay faces of the scraper lays.

In order that the angularity of the front edges of the registered sheets may be adjusted, the bearings 40 are adjustable on the frame 3 to move the shaft 2 I. This adjustment may also be used to vary the exact position of registrationcf the sheets.

The operation of the machine is as follows. The sheets are fed, (e. g. from a sheet separator operable to separate the sheets from a pile) in a I continuous stream of partly overlapped sheets timed to arriveat the front lay position to 00- incide with the rearward movement of the scraper-lays as described above. The scraperlays separate the front edge of each sheetfrom the overlyingsheet if they be adhering andzeffect a preliminaryregistration of the front edge'ofthe sheetwhileholding it down on the feed-board.

Theswing grippers then move backw'ardly until the lay plates 29 carried thereby engagethe'front edge of thesheet and press it slightly backwardly to "effect a precise registration thereof. The

'grippers then take hold of the sheet and "swin with it "to the press'roller where they transfer the sheet to the grippers 4 carried thereby.- To enable'the sheet to be-removed the scraper'l'ays move forwardly and downwardly to the chainline position shown in Figure 2 just before the swing grippers begin to move with the sheet.

It is an important advantage of the construction provided by the invention that the upper surface or scraping edge of the scraper arm lifts the sheet being removed and enables side registration of the underlying sheet to be effected-by suckers or other gripping devices operating underneath the upper sheet.

7 The position of the pivotal axis of thescraperlays is important and may be-below the registering position of the front edge of "the sheets or below and slightly behind or in front of that edge.

The scraper devices may be positively moved forwardly and downwardly into the inoperative position to release the sheet after the front edge of the sheet has been gripped by the grippers and the scraper devices may be returned by spring means as shown or they may be moved positively in both directions, it being preferred that in either case the operative position be accurately defined by a stop.

The invention includes a stream-fed printing machine having swinging transfer grippers and combined scraper and registering gauges as described above, and so arranged that as, or just before, each sheet is taken by the grippers, the gauges move forwardly and downwardly to release the front edge of the sheet and then move upwardly and backwardly with a scraping action under the sheet to a registering position, the return movement being synchronised with the arrival of the next sheet at the registering position in such manner that the leading edge of that sheet, if it adheres to the underside of the sheet being removed, will be engaged by the edges of the scrapers, detached thereby from the upper sheet and directed downwardly to a registering position under the upper arms of the scrapers.

As previously mentioned, the scraper and front registering gauges provided by the invention may be employed to secure exact or approximate registration of the front edges of the sheets. If approximate registration only is obtained completion of the registration may be effected by means of swinging grippers provided with registering stops as described. Registration in two stages in this way has the advantage that a lighter construction of the scraper devices may be employed.

I claim:

In apparatus of the type described, operating on successive sheets stream-fed in partly overlapped relation across a feed-board and having swinging transfer grippers for taking the sheets one at a time from the feed-board; front registering means for the sheets comprising, scraper-lays having stop arms and scraper arms arranged at right angles to one another, means for pivotally supporting the stop arms at their free ends below the feed-board for rotation about an axis extending transversely of the feed-board and so positioned that the free ends of the scraper arms move upwardly against and scrape along the underside of a sheet being removed and move downwardly over the end of the oncoming succeeding sheet into parallelism with the feedboard, said scraper arms having fiat under surfaces to smooth the end of the sheet and sharp leading edges to separate from the sheet being fed the leading edge of the succeeding sheet should it be adhering thereto, means for positioning said stop arms so that they preliminarily front register the sheet slightly ahead of its finally registered position, lay plates carried by said grippers, means for moving said grippers toward the edge of the sheet preliminarily registered by said stop arms to eifect slight rearward movement of the sheet by said lay plates to finally front register the sheet at the end of the gripper stroke prior to the taking of the sheet by the grippers, and means for rotating the scraper-lays on said axis to clear the sheet as the grippers move it off the feed-board and to return the scraper-lays to sheet-registering position simultaneously with the delivery of the succeeding sheet.

HEADLEY TOWNSEND BACKHOUSE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,615,174 Kelly Jan. 18, 1927 1,922,040 Harrold Aug. 15, 1933 2,069,918 Gegenheimer Feb. 9, 1937 2,221,500 Upham Nov. 12, 1940 2,309,979 Pritchard Feb. 2, 1943 2,339,756 Aneiros Jan. 25, 1944 2,474,983 Peyrebrune et al. July 5, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 515,549 Germany Dec. 18, 1930 

